Maybe you just didn’t draw that one card you needed, or maybe you just got hit by a bunch of negate cards. What you need is just a few extra life points to keep the game going until you can turn it around. Alternatively, maybe you want to build a deck that only increases life points! This kind of deck is a long-winded strategy for a deck out, where you continuously gain life until your opponent runs out of cards to draw. Rage quitting is so much more fun when it’s your opponent doing it, right? Either way, here’s some of the best Yu-Gi-Oh! cards to help you gain life.
12. Griggle
Griggle is as ridiculous as it sounds, but gets an honorable mention for having an insane effect if you can pull it off. When the control of this card swaps players, you gain 3000 life points. Griggle’s also only got 350 attack, making it a great monster to steamroll over if you can swap him. To pull this off, you’ll need to use a card like Creature Swap. You’ll want to wait until your opponent has a big monster on board so they have something good to swap with. Alternatively, you could always use a Kaiju monster on your opponent and just take that instead! Oh Griggle, if only you were better.
11. Damage Eater
When Damage Eater is in the graveyard, you can banish him to make an effect that would burn your LP, instead give you life points! This is a great tech card against burn decks. Especially with cards like Just Desserts which can inflict huge amounts of damage at once. Damage Eater is the perfect way to turn the game right around. The one drawback of this card is that it has to be in the graveyard to activate this effect. This means you’ve got to set it first, wait for it to be destroyed by battle, and then it’s useful. It’s a long time to wait, but can be handy in the right situations.
10. Absorbing Kid from the Sky
While his attack stat is pretty tiny, his effect more than makes up for it. When Absorbing Kid from the Sky destroys a monster by battle, you can gain life points equal to its level x 300. You’ll need to use some equip spells to boost his attack, though. Or else he won’t be able to destroy much! This isn’t too much of a hassle, honestly. And there are some really great equip spells to choose from! Don’t get me started on United We Stand… It’s also worth noting that this card will be useless against XYZ and Link monsters, who don’t actually have levels, so make sure you’re not wasting your attacks on those.
9. Solemn Wishes
I think this may be the only Solemn card that hasn’t made me rage quit a game. Unlike the other Solemn counterparts, Solemn Wishes doesn’t negate anything your opponent controls, and instead lets you gain 500 life points for every card that you draw. Combine this with any of the Pot cards like Pot of Desires, Pot of Extravagance, or maybe one day Pot of Greed, and you’ll get extra cards and a bunch of extra life points to go with ‘em.
8. Emergency Provisions
Nothing like an emergency snack mid-battle. With Emergency Provisions, you can turn useless spells and traps into life points. This is great when you’re really on the last straw of the game and need just a few more life points to pull it all together. While it sucks that you have to destroy your own spells and traps, it may be a great way to clear space for some better ones in your hand.
7. Psychic Lifetrancer
Psychics were one of those cool types introduced that never really took off. Sure, there were Kozmo’s which took the meta by storm. But generally Psychics weren’t exactly popular. But one of the few monsters that did see some play was this card. At the time, the card Krebons was an extremely powerful tuner with an effect that made it indestructible. Loads of decks played it, especially alongside Emergency Teleport which let you grab it straight from deck. Psychic Lifetrancer lets you banish a psychic from your graveyard to gain 1200 life points. If you summoned this with Krebons then that’s 1200 right off the bat, with even more in store if you have extra psychic monsters in your deck.
6. Beelzeus of the Diabolic Dragons
They really weren’t lying when they called this guy Diabolic. With this powerful synchro monster, you can make any monster your opponent controls have 0 attack, and gain life equal to the attack they lost! If you drain a big monster like a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon you could be gaining well over 3000-4000 life points. Although any battle damage with this card is halved, your opponent will still be taking 2000 damage with no defense. The only drawback to this guy is that it’s a level 10 synchro, which is a little awkward to summon for some decks. If you’ve got the right levels and tuners in your deck, however, I’d definitely chuck a copy of Beelzeus in.
5. Aroma Jar
When this card is flipped up, it can’t be destroyed by battle, and you gain 500 life points during every single end phase. All you need to do with this card is set it in defense position, wait for your opponent to try and attack it, then wait for the life points to roll on in. Easy. As long as your opponent doesn’t destroy this card with a card effect, then you’ve got an undefeatable wall that keeps replenishing your life points. Another great thing about Aroma Jar is that it’s a level 1 monster, meaning you can special summon it from the deck with One for One. So with a good strategy, you can bring out Aroma Jar whenever you need it.
4. Thought Ruler Archfiend
Here’s another psychic monster that saw some play and is way more generic to use. All you need is to be able to synchro summon for level 8, which pretty much any deck in Modern Yu-Gi-Oh can do with ease. Whenever this card destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the graveyard, you gain life equal to that destroyed monster’s original attack. With 2700 attack, you can run over some pretty high attack monsters, making for some serious life gains. I mean, the Dark Magician is supposed to be the “ultimate monster in terms of attack and defense”, and he doesn’t hold a candle to this guy. Just note that this effect won’t work against pendulum decks, because when a pendulum monster is destroyed, it never actually goes to the graveyard. But for the rest of the summoning methods, go nuts!
3. Draining Shield
Gain life points and stop an attack? Absolute bargain! This might be one of the most nostalgic trap cards in Yu-Gi-Oh, right up there with Magic Cylinder and Mirror Force. For the best value out of this card, use it against your opponent’s strongest monsters. Let them think they have the upper hand with their huge attack monsters, then use Draining Shield to turn it right back on them.
2. Child’s Play
Modern Yu-Gi-Oh is all about special summoning. You’d be hard pressed to find a competitive deck out there that doesn’t special summon at least 5 times a turn! Well Child’s Play lets you gain 300 life points for every special summon they do. And while your life points are greater than 10,000, all your monsters become indestructible! With a bit of quick math, that means your opponent only needs to special summon 7 times before your field is practically untouchable. This is an easy feat (I can think of so many duels where I wish they only summoned 7 times…) and is great value for gaining life points.
1. Nimble Momonga
I swear I remember this card as being way cuter when I first played Yu-Gi-Oh! When Nimble Momonga is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, you can gain 1000 life points. Then you can special summon as many Nimble Momonga from your deck as possible! This puts up a wall your opponent has to get through, overall netting you a whopping 3000 life points (once all 3 copies have been destroyed). All thanks to a single card. The fact that each copy can bring out the others makes Nimble Momonga an incredibly powerful defensive play, and is easily the best card at scoring you a huge amount of life points with minimal risk.
